thoughts (and links) of a retired "social scientist" as he tries to make sense of the world.....

what you get here

This is not a blog which expresses instant opinions on current events. It rather uses incidents, books (old and new), links and papers as jumping-off points for some reflections about our social endeavours.

So old posts are as good as new! And lots of useful links!

Sunday, March 26, 2017

Exemplary Critics

I’m
a great fan of diagrams – apart from giving us a breathing space from text, they
show that the writer is aware that we all operate with very different
types of understanding. hAnd - even more than the act of writing itself - the
process of designing a diagram will quickly throw up the flaws in your
thinking…….

Six
categories form the heart of the two diagrams from the Commons
Transition people I referred to yesterday - I liked the selection of the worlds of “work”,
“citizens” and “conscience” as key categories – we all behave differently in
these spheres……and I understood the “politics” and “economy” labels – we have
various assumptions and expectations in those fields….

It
was the sixth category however – of “consumption/production” which utterly
confused me. What exactly is it – and how does it differ from “economy” and
“work”?? And why are “workers’ cooperatives” not included in the “economy”
category (and “social enterprise” included not there but in “work”??)

There
were actually two diagrams – one purporting to illustrate the “present
capitalist paradigm”, the second “Beyond Capitalism” and containing
illustrative names……

The
first diagram, however, was also bereft of such illustrations and I therefore
offered a simpler
version of the diagram which included the names of writers I considered
offered useful examples of the schools indicated (with appropriate hyperlinks)….

I
readily concede that the names selected probably said more about the world of
an ageing (male) Brit than anything else – even so, of the 23 names selected,
only five are actually English.

I
do, however, have to confess that all but two are male (although I generally
quote people like Susan Strange and Susan George).

Let me introduce this
exemplary group – in future posts I hope to say more about those who have
written critically in the past 50 odd years about the economic and political
system which has us in its grip…… I start at the top
left corner of the diagramwith some key names in the increasingly critical debate about the health of our democracies........

Sheldon Wolin was one of
America’s most distinguished political scientists – producing in 1960 one of
the most lucid and inviting political textbooks “Politics and Vision” (700pp). As a
student of politics between 1960-64, it was his book (and Bernard Crick’s “In
Defence of Politics”) which inspired me to pursue politics as a vocation……

Peter Mair was a highly
respected Irish political scientist who died at the height of his powers at the
age of 60 and is renowned for Ruling the Void – the
hollowing of Western Democracy (2013) which encapsulated
the increasing despair of serious political scientists about the post 2000 trajectory
of democracy.

Robert Michels started the
critique a hundred years earlier with his “ Political
Parties – a sociological study of the oligarchical tendencies of modern
democracy” first produced in German in 1911.

Wolfgang
Streeck is a German sociologist who has produced a series of powerfully-written
critiques of the modern economy, culminating in How will Capitalism End?

David
Harvey is an English Marxist geographer who has been based in the States for
the past few decades; and become famous for his courses on Marxism and
capitalism. One of his most powerful books is A Brief History of Neo Liberalism (2005)

Barbara Ehrenreich is an American
journalist who has famously worked undercover to bring to readers her
experiences of just how grim working life can be eg “Nickel and Dimed”

Joseph
Stiglitz was the World Bank’s Chief Economist until his challenges of its
Orthodoxy proved too much for them to bear. Globalisation and its
Discontents (2002) is one of the many trenchant books he has
written to expose the emptiness of economics orthodoxy….

John Michael Greer
is
an American writer and one of the most prominent of what might be called the apocalypicists – who consider
that the western world is on a “Long (if slow) Descent” to a simpler world…I’m
using the word in a respectful way since a lot of their arguments are
convincing – and Greer’s analysis of American politics is the most profound
I’ve seen.

Edward Snowden is the whistle-blower
par excellence – working for a CIA sub-contractor he unearthed and spilled the
story of the scale of American hacking of private accounts…

Julian Assange is an
Australian computer expert, publisher and activist who has been holed up in
London’s Ecuador Embassy since 2102 for fear of extradition to the US for
“trumped-up” charges by the Swedish authorities….

About Me

Can be contacted at bakuron2003@yahoo.co.uk
Political refugee from Thatcher's Britain (or rather Scotland) who has been on the move since 1991. First in central Europe - then from 1999 Central Asia and Caucasus. Working on EU projects - related to building capacity of local and central government. Home base is an old house in the Carpathian mountains and Sofia

about the blog

Writing in my field is done by academics - and gives little help to individuals who are struggling to survive in or change public bureaucracies. Or else it is propoganda drafted by consultants and officials trying to talk up their reforms. And most of it covers work at a national level - whereas most of the worthwhile effort is at a more local level. The restless search for the new dishonours the work we have done in the past. As Zeldin once said - "To have a new vision of the future it is first necessary to have new vision of the past".I therefore started this blog to try to make sense of the organisational endeavours I've been involved in; to see if there are any lessons which can be passed on; to restore a bit of institutional memory and social history - particularly in the endeavour of what used to be known as "social justice". My generation believed that political activity could improve things - that belief is now dead and that cynicism threatens civilisationI also read a lot and wanted to pass on the results of this to those who have neither the time or inclination -as well as my love of painting, particularly the realist 20th century schools of Bulgaria and Belgium.A final motive for the blog is more complicated - and has to do with life and family. Why are we here? What have we done with our life? What is important to us? Not just professional knowledge - but what used to be known, rather sexistically, as "wine, women and song" - for me now in the autumn of my life as wine, books and art....

quotes

“I will act as if what I do makes a difference”
William James 1890.

"The ideas of economists and political philosophers, both when they are right and when they are wrong, are more powerful than is commonly understood. Indeed the world is ruled by little else. Practical men, who believe themselves to be quite exempt from any intellectual influence, are usually the slaves of some defunct economist. Madmen in authority, who hear voices in the air, are distilling their frenzy from some academic scribbler of a few years back. I am sure that the power of vested interests is vastly exaggerated compared with the gradual encroachment of ideas"
JM Keynes (1935)

"We've spent half a century arguing over management methods. If there are solutions to our confusions over government, they lie in democratic not management processes"
JR Saul (1992)

"There are four sorts of worthwhile learning - learning about · oneself
· learning about things
· learning how others see us
· learning how we see others"
E. Schumacher (author of "Small is Beautiful" (1973) and Guide for the Perplexed (1977))

"The fundamental cause of trouble in the world today is that the stupid are cocksure while the intelligent are full of doubt."
Bertrand Russell, 1950

Followers

der arme Dichter (Carl Spitzweg)

my alter ego

the other site

In 2008 I set up a website in the (vain) hope of developing a dialogue around issues of public administration reform - particularly in transition countries where I have been living and working for the past 26 years. The site is www.freewebs.com/publicadminreform and contains the major papers I have written over the years about my attempts to reform various public organisations in the various roles which I've had - politician; academic/trainer; consultant.